Women with endometriosis have increased levels of placental growth factor in the peritoneal fluid compared with women with cystadenomas

BACKGROUND: To assess the release of placental growth factor (PlGF) into peritoneal fluid in women with and without endometriosis, we measured its concentration with reference to disease stage, the presence of red endometriotic lesions and the phase of menstrual cycle. METHODS: Surgery was scheduled in the proliferative or secretory phase of the menstrual cycle for 59 women with (n = 35) or without (n = 24) endometriosis. The latter group comprised women undergoing surgery for ovarian cystadenomas. PlGF concentrations in the peritoneal fluid were measured using an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. RESULTS: PlGF concentration in the peritoneal fluid was markedly elevated in the endometriosis patients (median 189 pg/ml, interquartile range 84-475 pg/ml) as compared with the controls (88 pg/ml, 41-213 pg/ml; P < 0.001), especially in women with red lesions. Significantly greater values during the secretory phase of the menstrual cycle as compared with the proliferative phase were observed in both the control (cystadenoma) group (P < 0.05) and the endometriosis group (P < 0.001). CONCLUSIONS: Our findings suggest that production of PlGF is sensitive to the cyclic changes in ovarian steroids and may contribute to the pathogenesis of endometriosis, especially that of red lesions, by promoting neovascularization.     

Serotonin-depleting midbrain lesions fail to mitigate hyperphagia and obesity in the Zucker fatty rat

Previous research has shown that damage to the dorsal and median raphe nuclei of rats can impede the subsequent development of hypothalamic hyperphagia and obesity as well as impair the defense of established hypothalamic obesity in response to food deprivation. The present study sought to determine if raphe injury might alter the development of another form of obesity, namely that which occurs spontaneously in the Zucker fatty rat. Subjects were 20 obese females (fafa; mean weight of 200 g) and 20 lean littermate controls (FaFa females; mean weight of 150 g). Following 10 days of baseline intake and weight recordings, half of each group received radio-frequency heat lesions of the dorsal and median raphe nuclei while the other half received sham surgery. Except for a mild suppression of food intake and weight gain during the first few days after lesioning, raphe injury did not alter the hyperphagia or obesity shown by fatties over the 7 week ad lib feeding period studied. Additional 24-hr intake tests of varying sucrose and quinine solutions revealed reduced sucrose acceptance and enhanced quinine rejection by fatties much as has been seen in previous studies of hypothalamic obese rats. Terminal assays of forebrain monoamine levels confirmed that raphe lesions were effective in depleting serotonin (-71% compared to controls) without producing major changes in norepinephrine or dopamine (-14% and +2%, respectively). The inability of raphe lesions to mitigate this form of hyperphagia and obesity suggests that earlier observations of their attenuating effects on hypothalamic obesity were not due to non-specific impairments of behavioral or metabolic factors necessary to permit overeating and weight gain.     

Cystic lesions of the salivary glands: cytologic features in fine-needle aspiration biopsies

A variety of neoplastic and nonneoplastic lesions of the salivary glands have a predominantly cystic architecture. Fine-needle aspirates of these lesions yield watery or mucoid material, frequently of low cellularity. Such aspirates may be obtained from mucus retention cysts, lymphoepithelial cysts, cystadenomas, Warthin's tumors, cystic pleomorphic adenomas, low-grade mucoepidermoid carcinomas, cystadenocarcinomas, and examples of polycystic disease of the parotid gland. The cellular component within the fluid obtained from these lesions may be exceedingly scant or absent, making cytologic diagnosis difficult and, at times, impossible. We studied a series of 56 cystic lesions of the salivary glands, including 38 Warthin's tumors, 6 benign cysts, 2 lymphoepithelial cysts, 5 low-grade mucoepidermoid carcinomas, 1 cystic pleomorphic adenoma, 2 cystadenomas, and 2 cystadenocarcinomas. Careful attention to the cellular elements present often allowed definitive cytologic diagnosis, with an overall accuracy rate of 84%. The presence of atypical squamous metaplasia in oncocytic lesions was a significant cause of false-positive diagnoses of carcinoma (4 cases, 7%). Aspirates of low-grade mucoepidermoid carcinoma may contain no epithelial cells and result in false-negative diagnoses (1 case, 2%).     

Cytologic features of central giant-cell granuloma of the jaw

In this present series, we studied in detail the cytologic features of five histopathologically verified cases of central giant-cell granuloma (CGCG). All the patients in this series were female, with an age range of 11-60 years. There were three cases with involvement of the lower jaw and two cases had upper jaw involvement. Cytology smears showed dispersed single cells in the background. Nuclei of the individual cells were round to ovoid with fine chromatin and inconspicuous nucleoli. The cytoplasm of these cells was moderate in amount with indistinct cell borders. Many randomly scattered multinucleated giant cells with 10-20 nuclei were present in the background. Combination of clinical features, radiologic pictures, and cytologic features may be helpful for diagnosis of CGCG on fine-needle aspiration cytology.     

Aberrant retinal projections to midbrain targets mediate spared visual orienting function in hamsters with neonatal lesions of superior colliculus

Summary Rodents, cats, and most nonmammalian vertebrates with bilateral tectal deafferentation or ablation in adulthood are extremely deficient at orienting to visual stimuli; yet animals with neonatal lesions of superficial layers of the superior colliculus (SC) show partial sparing of this response, particularly for targets in the central visual field. In this study, we sought to determine whether these spared orienting abilities are mediated by aberrant retinal projections to the remaining intermediate layers of the SC, or whether visual cortex (VC) mechanisms or alternative behavioral strategies are responsible. Neonatal golden hamsters received either bilateral heat lesions of the SC (rlSC), or a heat lesion of the right SC and enucleation of the right eye (rSCrE). This latter procedure causes axons from the left eye to recross the tectal midline and terminate in the wrong (left) SC (Schneider 1973). As adults, both groups of hamsters were extremely deficient in visually guided approach to stationary targets, although rlSC-lesioned hamsters showed some sparing for central field targets and rSCrE-lesioned hamsters often made wrong-direction turns for targets in the left peripheral field. We then subjected both groups of neonatally lesioned hamsters to bilateral aspiration lesions of the VC. Retesting showed no change in visual orienting behavior as a result of the cortical lesions. Labeling of the optic tract with horseradish peroxidase (HRP) revealed abundant aberrant retinal projections to remaining intermediate layers of the SC and thalamic nucleus lateralis posterior (LP), as well as supernormal innervation of pretectal nuclei, the dorsal terminal nucleus of the accessory optic tract, and the ventral nucleus of the lateral geniculate body (LGv). We conclude that the spared visual orienting capabilities of hamsters with rlSC and rSCrE lesions are mediated by the aberrant midbrain projections, and that cortical mechanisms are not involved in spared visual orienting functions following these neonatal lesions.     

Inhibitory effect of DS-4574, a peptidoleukotriene antagonist with mast cell stabilizing action,on compound 48/80-induced gastric mucosal lesions in rats

We evaluated the inhibitory effect of DS-4574, a peptidoleukotriene antagonist with mast cell stabilizing action, on rat gastric mucosal lesions induced by compound 48/80 (C48/80: a mast cell degranulator), in comparison with those of disodium cromoglycate (DSCG: a mast cell stabilizer), LY171883 (a peptidoleukotriene antagonist) and cimetidine (a histamine H₂ receptor antagonist). Subcutaneous administration of C48/80 (1 mg/kg) once daily for four consecutive days produced extensive gastric lesions in the fundic mucosa. DS-4574 (20, 50 and 100 mg/kg/day, oral) and DSCG (200 mg/kg/day, intraperitoneal) treatment markedly inhibited formation of these mucosal lesions, but LY171883 (100 and 200 mg/kg/day, oral) and cimetidine (400 mg/kg/day, oral) treatment did not. Moreover, DS-4574 and DSCG significantly suppressed both hyperhistaminemia and histamine release from rat peritoneal mast cells induced by C48/80. These results indicate that the inhibitory effect of DS-4574 on gastric lesions induced by C48/80 may be related to its mast cell stabilizing action, but to neither its antisecretory nor its peptidoleukotriene antagonistic activity.     

Rostral midbrain lesions and copulatory behavior in male rats

Discrete electrolytic lesions were placed in the mesencephalic dorsal noradrenergic (DNE) bundle of 22 male Sprague-Dawley rats, and sham operations were performed on 14 control animals. Eight components of copulatory behavior were compared in 2 preoperative and 2 postoperative heterosexual mating tests. A significant postlesion decrease in the postejaculatory interval (PEI), number of intromissions, number of incomplete mounts and the ejaculation latency from the first intromission (ELI) occurred. Norepinephrine levels were significantly reduced in the hippocampus, amygdala and hypothalamus, but not in the preoptic area. The only statistically significant correlations between NE concentrations and behavior in the lesioned animals were negative (hippocampal NE with PEI and ELI). The results support the hypothesis that rostral midbrain lesions disinhibit some components of male rodent copulatory behavior, but suggest that a system or systems other than the DNE bundle may be responsible for this disinhibition.     

Effect of some stressors on mitosis in the corneal epithelium and the bone marrow aneuploid cell level in adrenalectomized albino rats

It was shown previously that exposure to stressors led to a decrease in the number of mitoses in the cornea as a result of G₂–M delay. The index of labeled nuclei and level of pathological mitoses were unchanged. It is now shown that injection of pyrogenal or contact hypothermia for 1 h to 28–30°C did not cause reactive inhibition to develop in adrenalectomized rats, but led to a significant increase in the level of pathological mitoses in the cornea from 4.3–6.3% in intact and adrenalectomized rats to 10.6–12.5% in adrenalectomized rats exposed to stress. Karyotypic analysis of the bone marrow cells under these conditions revealed a significant increase in the number of aneuploid cells (both hypo- and hyperdiploid).Central Research Laboratory, Khabarovsk Medical Institute. (Presented by Academician of the Academy of Medical Sciences of the USSR A. M. Chernukh.) Translated from Byulleten' Éksperimental'noi Biologii i Meditsiny, Vol. 88, No. 9, pp. 338–341, September, 1979.     

A fourth case of ring chromosome 7

An 8-year-old child with a ring chromosome 7 is presented, the first female and the fourth such individual to be described. The associated anomalies were rather benign: she presented with short stature, minor skeletal alterations, and normal intelligence. The only truly striking feature was the presence of multiple large, pigmented naevi, suggestive of a hamartomatous origin, but unlike those typical of any particular syndrome. Though other ring 7 patients have had naevus flammeus, and one had cafk-au-lait spots, our proband is the first with an anomaly of chromosome 7 to have such extensive lesions. These four cases of ring 7, which show great phenotypic variation, are reviewed, and the clinical presentation of the proband is also compared with that of patients suffering from terminal, interstitial and translocation-derived 7p and 7q deletions. The formation and behaviour of ring chromosomes are discussed, as are the cytogenetic factors which may influence their phenotypic expression.